>>Charge more for the initial cruise so you can pay more, and then leave the tipping to the guest.
First off, I certainly agree with this. It would be much better if the cruise lines just had the charges already folded into cruise fare and paid the employees higher wages. That way people could not opt out, and could tip on their own for outstanding service. Instead the cruise lines pay their employees a pittance with the expectation that the wages will be subsidized by the customers' generosity. Of course, the cruise lines like being able to advertise lower fares and don't mind that the employees get shafted with the autograt policy.
Secondly, we have had very different experiences on NCL. I always cruise on the newest ship in the fleet, though. Especially if you are cruising within the first five or six months of the inaugural season, your crew will be "the openers," who tend to be the best of the fleet recruited for the new ship. Perhaps this is why our NCL cruises have been so different. I also cruise in the Haven, but have never had a steward ignore a request. I've rarely even had to make them. Because my suites always have two bathrooms, I've never been short on towels, and sometimes, regarding body wash and shampoo, as soon as I move the little bottles from the tray in between the sinks to the shower they put replacements back on the tray so I often have one in back up at all times. I know I have read online that some people have found on various cruise lines that there are lists of customers who remove the automatic gratuity. I never really thought about it, but it might be true and could explain why our experiences are so different.
I don't generally eat in the complimentary dining rooms, so I can't really comment on the service there, and if I'm eating in the buffet, I'm just going to grab something quick so I wouldn't be there long enough to notice any bad service, but I've never had any issues.
In fact, what always amazes me is that on every cruise there is usually a dozen or so employees that remember me from previous cruises. They might not remember my name, but they will remember something about me or my girlfriend. Like one waiter in the Haven restaurant always comes by even if he is not serving us to say "hello" and comment that we always eat lunch there on the first day and never come back until the next cruise. Or like on our Getaway cruise a couple months ago, a bartender remembered that my girlfriend liked the Coco Cabanatini a lot when we were on the Breakaway and told her that they removed the drink from the menu, but he still remembers how to make it is she wanted it. Considering how many faces they see, stuff like that amazes me. Of course, as I mentioned before, since I am always on the newest ship, a lot of times it is the same opening crew, so they could have seen me on a dozen cruises, but it's still impressive nonetheless.
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Posted by: seedub49@yahoo.com
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